How do you get brain-hungry hordes of zombies to meet quarterly sales goals? Do the undead deserve benefits and coffee breaks? Former Rocky Mountain News columnist and Aurora resident Dave Flomberg tackles such issues in “Management for Zombies,” a self-published satire that makes a clear link between corporate America and the undead. Flomberg, who drew inspiration from years spent between the worlds of journalism and corporate communications, said his first book hints at deeper, dehumanizing trends in the world of business. We caught up with Flomberg to talk about the ties between zombies and CEOs and get his take on the challenges of self-publishing.
Aurora Sentinel: Can you talk a bit about your journey from journalist to author? How did your professional life influence your ideas for the book?
Dave Flomberg: When I was at the Rocky, I was a full-time freelancer. I was working elsewhere at the same time. I started out my career as a traditional journalist, I was at the Boulder Weekly and then I went to CitySearch in the early dot-com days.
Once CitySearch and the dot-com bust happened, I sold out and went to corporate communications. I was at Comcast for seven years as a corporate communications guy.
It gave me a chance to hone my skill set as a writer while seeing the other side, so to speak, of the coin in corporate America. I started to see the same thing happen in different places, regardless of where I went. I got to see a whole lot of people do the same types of things at the management level.
While I had the privilege of working with tremendous managers, I ran into a lot of people who just looked at their employees as tools; a hammer, a wedge, a tool to meet ends rather than human beings.
Eventually the Rocky went under. I saw that happen. Choices were made to meet bottom lines. Everything was about fiscal responsibility. At the end of the day, it was really pure dollars and sense. Humanity wasn’t a factor in a whole lot of it.
Between that and the fact that zombies have been so popular, I guess both things seeped into my subconscious. I’m a zombie fan as much as the next guy, and I started to see that there was a similarity there.
At the top level, management looks at their employees and their staff as little more than mobile flesh bags. We’ve got to keep them fed and we’ve got to keep them moving through the lines to make sure we can get our goods moved to market at the end of the day. The book just started writing itself.
How did it end up in its final form, a satirical ‘how-to’ guide for corporate managers dealing with the undead?
It started earlier in my career, as I was thinking of a twist on the standard zombie story. I would write these little essays about corporate America and how absurd a lot of it was. I am in the “Office Space” generation. A lot of those things haven’t changed – it’s still TPS reports and Lundberg running things. I think the idea for a zombie book started to take hold after I saw “Fido,” I think that was the movie that gave me the idea that we’re all domesticated zombies when it comes to CEOs looking for staff.
It’s funny because, as I was writing this, I started realizing that I could expound upon it. I wanted to keep it a fast read … As I started diving into these different sections, I realized they could be their own books. I got some notes started on “IT for Zombies,” as well as “HR for Zombies.” I think I’ll definitely use a couple of angles if success warrants it.
It seems like zombies just keep getting more and more popular. What’s your take on the evolution of the genre in pop culture?
The genre itself has definitely evolved. In the last few outings in popular media, you see the evolution from just a monster story to a story about humans who are in a monster story. “The Walking Dead” is a great example of the character driven approach, people surviving the post-apocalypse zombie world. I think that, at its heart, is what’s pushing it.
From my perspective, what’s unique to my approach here is that zombie movies, books, zombie popular media has always been this warning to ourselves. We’re heading down this path because this is who we are. We’re zombies, we just exist to consume en masse. It’s a satire on America being such a consumer society.
My twist here was the fact that I felt like we’re kind of forced into it when you live here now. It’s not something that a lot of us set out to do when we join the workforce.
We have to play by these rules, rules that are set up to put us in this box. My goal here was trying to be as funny as I could, making fun of these pulleys and levers and systems that we have to work in corporate America. At the end of the day, we’re still humans. If we can just keep ourselves from losing track of that, salvation is totally possible. We don’t have to end up in that dystopian future society where we’re hacking and slashing each other just to make ends meet at the end of the day.
You self-published the book and worked with the local company DenverMind Media. As someone who’s witnessed the transformation of the print industry firsthand, what’s your take on opportunities available to aspiring authors? Has the digital revolution made it tougher to get your foot in the door as a writer?
I think it’s easier now than it’s ever been, personally. I’ve been a professional musician my entire career as well. I think it’s very similar to the way the music industry has gone. You don’t need a publisher anymore. If you do self-distribution, you don’t have to worry about the label, so to speak. That’s what I’ve been learning.
I self-published this. DenverMind Media, they’ve handled the marketing and they did a tremendous job. The book launch sold out.
It’s a democratic process now, and I think that if you can handle it from a marketing perspective, that’s the hardest part once you get the book done. You can move products, you don’t have to worry about going through publishers, with four or five different levels of fat to trim. There are so many tools out there now.